Oriane Smith

Betsy Bird (31 Days, 31 Lists)

Epigraph: Even if the lights go out, even if someone says to me: 'No more'. I'll still be here. One can always watch. --Rainer Maria Rilke

The complete text of the book is printed on the first page, adorned only with a small bird perched on top of the "e" in "like." Following that, each double-page spread contains a nearly full-page illustration with a slender white air frame, showing the same scene from two different perspectives; one line of the poem is printed underneath, once on each side, in black on the verso and yellow-brown-green on the recto. On one side is a human perspective; the other side shows the point of view of a small animal, revealed on the final spread - a single illustration - to be a squirrel.
The illustrations are full-color and wonderfully detailed: ferns, acorns, trees, mushrooms, bird nests and bird houses and blooming trees.

Author's Note ("Factually speaking, squirrels have dichromatic vision...")… (mehr)